Firefighter's Widow Waiting For Federal Benefits
Mar 26 2007 6:48PM
REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio - The wife of a central Ohio firefighter who died of a heart attack said Monday she continues to wait for the federal dollars the president promised she'd receive.
In 2003, President Bush signed the Hometown Hero's Act, qualifying firefighters and police officers for federal benefits if they died of a heart attack while on the job.
So far, 240 families have applied for benefits through the Hometown Heroes Act, but none have been distributed. Forty families have been denied, and another 200 are still waiting to hear. Vicky Ward's family is one of them.
Vicky and her husband, Don (pictured, right), had been married 17 years when he passed away.
Don, 46, was a firefighter for 12 and a half years. He worked a 12-hour overtime shift at Fire Station 4 in Reynoldsburg in March 2004. He went on seven emergency calls and a working fire. The next day, March 14, he died from a heart attack.
"He was just a wonderful man, a very good husband and very good father," Vicky Ward said. "It's just a little frustrating. It seems everything with the government is always very slow."
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